[FoRK] Radical Honesty

Since others weighed in, I'll pile on. I didn't want to read that article.
When I realized the other day that it was written by A.J. Jacobs, I
expected it would be worthless -- since his writing usually is. That
turned out to be true, as usual, so my first decision NOT to read it was
the correct one.
Jacobs makes up stupid tasks for himself -- like reading the entire
encyclopedia then claiming to have been on a "Humble Quest to Become the
/Smartest Person/ in the World"-- so he can have ~something~ to write
about, because he's never had an interesting idea of his own.
He seems to be a very good self-promoter, though. Somehow, he's managed
to convince people at NPR that he's clever, so they invite him on for a
ridiculous, insipid interview every now and then, after he gets done
living biblically for a year, or wiping his ass with the other hand for
a change, or whatever artificial garbage he came up with to generate
another book or fulfill another open-ended contract.
As for the rude dipshit, Brad Blanton, who espouses Radical Honesty, you
only need to read one line on page four of the article to understand his
world. After meeting at length with Jacobs, and exchanging a lot of
email, he insists that Jacob will:
"still need to take a workshop (price tag: $2,800)"
Namely, Blanton's workshop, which is the reason Blanton continues to
push his selfish shitfuck lifestyle. Regardless of Jacobs' assumption
to the contrary, Blanton is, by definition, full of New Age Sewage. He
sells his selfishness to other people who don't have an original idea
about how to be, and aren't interesting enough, or smart enough to be
THEMSELVES even for a moment, and who feel "full of life" and
"authentic" when told exactly what to do, and exactly how to be.
People like A.J. Jacobs. See how that explains what happened here?
Jacobs isn't a real person, and Blanton instructed him how to be one --
if ever so briefly -- so Jacobs did it, and now is pretending it was
interesting.
What a load of incredible shit.
Actually, page three of the article provides Jacobs' single relevant
(though stupidly inaccurate) insight from the entire five-page waste of
time:
"I have a theory: I think Blanton devised Radical Honesty
partly as a way to pick up women."
Partly? See? There's the proof Jacobs is not very smart. Blanton
didn't devise shit. Blanton is just a rude motherfucker, and realized
that even when he was rude he could pick up ~some~ women, so he did it
that way, and called attention to it (because he also likes attention,
which makes him feel like his rudeness is somehow "interesting).
Then he realized he could make money by telling other guys it was OK to
be equally rude. That asshole didn't devise ~SHIT~. He's just a
fucking con man who likes anonymous sex. Nothing new there. Congress
is full of them. It's amazing he ~wasn't~ elected!
By the way, I have exactly the ~problem~ that Blanton says is a
desirable trait: I say what I think without filtering it very much.
And people hate, hate, HATE that shit. It ruins intimate
relationships. AND it makes it pretty goddamn hard to work with anybody
who's NOT a genius.
So, I STRONGLY advise against this Radical Honesty stupidity. It's a
bullshit theory reverse-engineered by a bullshit artist who couldn't get
his dick wet by being a decent human being.
If that wasn't radical enough, I don't care.
GS
On 1/2/12 1:19 AM, Stephen Williams wrote:
> I've sort of run across it before, but hadn't found the full dose before.
> Doesn't seem like I hold back too much. (Hopefully I'll get time to
> write up my discussion with the assigned officer for my complaint
> before my trip. He made a surprisingly clear admission.)
>>http://www.esquire.com/features/honesty0707> TL; CnC (Too long, couldn't copy. ;-) )
>> sdw
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